Colombian Army Maintains Closes Ties to Paramilitaries, Report Says

Tim Golden, New York Times

Published
4:00 am PST, Thursday, February 24, 2000

2000-02-24 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- Units of the Colombian army continue to work closely with right-wing paramilitary forces that are involved in killings of civilians and threats against government human rights investigators, according to a report released yesterday by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

The group says that army brigades in Colombia's three largest cities, including the capital, Bogota, have continued to sponsor and collaborate with the outlaw paramilitaries during the past three years, even as military leaders have made some progress in curbing abuses by their own troops.

The problem of army involvement in paramilitary violence remains so intractable and widespread, Human Rights Watch officials said, that only by putting human rights conditions on its aid to Colombia is the U.S. government likely to bring significant reform.

The report was made public as the Clinton administration is intensifying its push in Congress for $1.3 billion in new aid for Colombia over the next year and a half. Most of the aid would go to the Colombian security forces, in order to help them fight drug operations and leftist rebels in the countryside.

Colombia's vice president, Gustavo Bell Lemus, denied any institutional tie between government forces and the paramilitaries and asserted that Human Rights Watch sought through the report to obstruct the approval of American aid.

Human rights advocates and some members of Congress have begun lobbying for amendments to the aid package that would bar the Pentagon and the CIA from sharing intelligence information with Colombian units known to have supported paramilitary groups and would cut off American aid to units that help the paramilitaries.

Human rights advocates in Colombia have asserted that military units were effectively handing over their dirty work to the rightist armies, which have operated in the country for years.

The study by Human Rights Watch cited "compelling, detailed information" suggesting that a major army garrison, the Third Brigade in Cali, secretly worked with the country's most notorious paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, to form a new paramilitary group after leftist guerrillas abducted 140 worshipers from a Cali church last May.

The report said the new force, which was called the Calima Front, was formed by active-duty and reserve officers of the Third Brigade, who gave intelligence information and logistical support to the troops.

The so-called Calima Front was subsequently linked to at least 40 killings and the forced displacement of about 2,000 people from their homes in the conflict zone, the report said, quoting local officials.